Bowdon drew their match against Llanfairfechan 9 – 9 at Bowdon on 27th July. This draw still maintained Bowdon’s position at the top of Group A in the NWF Level Play Golf Croquet League. Well done team.
Bowdon’s team was:
Alan Mayne, Captain -2Jack Good -3Dave Holland 3
Llanfairfechan’s team was:
Giles Pepperell 2, Martyn Seal 2 and Roger Edwards 2
Results were as follows:
Alan beat Giles twice, and Roger once. Losing to Martyn twice and Roger once.
Jack beat beat Roger and Martyn twice, and Giles once. Losing once to Giles.
David beat Martyn once. Losing to Giles and Roger twice, and Martyn once.
Bowdon travel a long way to Crake for their final match in the NWF ‘Group A’ Level Play GC League on Thursday 3rd August. Group A consists of Bowdon, Llanfairfechan and Crake Valley. So far Bowdon have played 3 games with 2 wins and a draw for 5 points. Crake Valley are in second place after 2 matches played with a win and a loss, for 3 points. A drawn match would ensure that Bowdon win Group A.
Our experienced and successful team is:
Alan Mayne, CaptainJack GoodDave Holland
We wish them good luck and fine weather in the deep North.
Bowdon are playing Chester Tribunes on Thursday 3rd August, in the North West Handicap Golf Croquet League. Bowdon will be aiming to win their second match of the season, having a record of 1 win, 1 draw and 2 defeats so far.
Our experienced team is:
Fred OwenDiane JermanCharles FraserMonica Young
We wish them good luck and fine weather. Lawns 2 and 3 will be occupied by this match for most of the day.
20 players had a great time over 2 days of competition. The weather was far better than the dire forecasts. One brief shower each day could not dampen our spirits. Lorna managed the Tournament with efficiency, humour and sweeties, as we know she can. Kay was in charge of the biccies and cakes, Angharrad supplied cakes and there were some homemade goodies from Sylvia. As Liz Webb said in addressing the closing ceremony, “The Commonwealth Games is known as the ‘Friendly Games’, and this proved to be a very Friendly Tournament”.
Below are contestants, winners all, awaiting the closing ceremony.
Andrew Jackson, who only started playing in April, won the Bowdon Short Croquet Tournament 2023. The final was contested by Andrew (9) and Alan Mayne (2 peels). Initially Alan got in and took his Black to 3. Andrew promptly took his Red to peg using 3 bisques to do so. Andrew’s leave was well organised, but Alan hit in with Blue from over 20 yards and played a wonderful break. Alan peeled his Black through hoops 3 and 4 to complete his peels, and went on to peg Red out. Andrew was left with his Yellow, for hoop 1, in corner 3, Blue in corner 2 and Black on the South boundary near corner 4. He shot for Blue and missed. Taking another bisque, Andrew roqueted Blue and croqueted it to hoop 1. Then he shot for Black, missed, and took another bisque to make the roquet. Then he croqueted Black to hoop 2 with Yellow to hoop 1. From then on Andrew played a steady, careful break to win the game +4, with 2 bisques unused. Alan was pleased that Andrew had taken his advice on how to play! As Alan said later, “It would have been interesting if I had pegged my Blue out along with Red”. Well done both players for providing a fascinating and skilful final that the spectators appreciated.
In the Quarter-finals Andrew had beaten Phil Eardley +14, Charles Harding had beaten Carol Steinberg +8, Alan Mayne had beaten Alan Dix +11 and Cas Sinclair had beaten Brian Medley +8.
In the semi-finals, Andrew had beaten Charles Harding +14 and Alan had beaten Cas Sinclair +6.
The Egyptian was won by Alan Dix, who was just 1 point ahead of Brian Medley.
Liz Webb, Vice-President of Bowdon CC, presented the trophies with her usual style.
Andrew Jackson receiving the Bowdon Short Trophy 2023 from LizAlan Mayne receiving the Runner-up awardAlan Dix wins the Egyptian prize
Andrew had his Short handicap reduced to 7. John Lucas had his handicap raised from 0 to 0.5. John politely thanked Alan Dix for his last defeat (0 – 14 to Alan!) which sealed the handicap change.
Jack teamed up with Nottingham’s Will Gee to compete at Nottingham in the English National GC Doubles, over the weekend of 29th and 30th July. Due mainly to the 150+ point increase in Jack’s D Grade over the last month they were the top seeds. Saturday saw them undefeated in 7 rounds of the pre-drawn Swiss.
With lots of upsets elsewhere Sunday saw them play the 2nd seeds in the quarter-finals, where they beat Jenny Clarke & Richard Bilton in straight games. The semi-finals saw the same score against Jack Wicks & Albie Willets. After a 3 hour wait for the other semi to finish (and the rain to arrive), Jack & Will beat Nick Archer & Jason Carley 2-0 in a very wet final.
Overall a quite good July for Jack – undefeated in the Inter-Club at Chester, undefeated in the Cheshire Open, part of the winning England team in the AC McWeeney, winning the Nottingham Ascot and finishing with this win. Very well done Jack.
Fred Owen represented Bowdon at Ashby Croquet Club, in the All England Golf Croquet Handicap. There were 8 players competing, with all-playing-all. Fred won 3 of his 7 games, and found his recently reduced handicap to 7 tough going. The price of previous success can be hard to bear! Colin Carr of Ashby was the clear winner with 5 wins. Fred tied with Philip Mander for sixth place, both having 21 points for and 18 against. Well done Fred.
Margaret Moss had intended to play but had to withdraw through injury.
Bowdon’s B-level team were in dominating form in their home match against Chester on Sunday 30th July, and extended their lead at the top of the ‘South’ . Bowdon secured a stunning 5 – 0 win over the second place team Chester. Each of the 3 teams in the ‘South’ has to play the other 2 teams at home and away.
Bowdon now have 3 wins from 3 matches, and Chester have just 1 win from their 2. Bury in third place have lost 3 from 3, and are now not able to overtake Bowdon. Bowdon have to play one more match against Chester at Chester. Chester would have to win their 2 remaining matches to join Bowdon on points at the top. If that happened then overall game scores would come into play in deciding who won overall. Currently Bowdon’s game score is 11 – 4, whilst Chester are on 3 – 7, so Chester would need two very convincing wins to overtake Bowdon.
Well done team Bowdon. Our heroes were:
Charles Harding, Captain, 2Mike Shelmerdine, 5Mike Sandler, 1.5
Chester’s team was Robin Tasker 4, David Guyton 4.5 and David Boyd 5.
Results of the morning games:
Charles and Mike Sh. beat Robin and David B. +4 on time
The Bowdon Short Croquet Tournament has been made into an internal affair instead of a CA event, next Tuesday and Wednesday (1st and 2nd of August). The tournament has attracted a full complement of 2 guests and 18 Bowdon members who will compete for the trophy. The 3 short lawns and lawn 1 (divided into 2 short lawns) will be occupied by the tournament for most of the 2 days. Lawns 2 and 3 will be available for general play. Lorna Frost is the tournament manager so good behaviour is guaranteed.
The two invited guests are Roger Schofield of Bury and Phil Eardley of Surbiton, both of whom are regular visitors to Bowdon. The Bowdon players are:
Ken CooperLiz WebbAlan DixMike FlanneryCharles HardingPauline HennellDave HollandAndrew JacksonAndrew JenkinsJohn Lucas Sue LucasKay MartinAlan MayneBrian MedleyCas SinclairMike SteerCarol SteinbergRobert Cutts-Brown
We wish them all good luck, fine weather and lots of fun.
Bowdon are hosting Chester in the North West Federation B-level NWF League on Sunday 30th July. Bowdon currently top the South group (Bowdon, Chester and Bury), with 2 wins from 2 matches. Chester are second with 1 win from 1 match, so a close match is anticipated. The winner of the South group will play the winner of the North group in a final.
Our experienced and determined team is:
Charles Harding, CaptainMike ShelmerdineMike Sandler
Play begins at roughly 10am and spectators will be welcome to watch some very skilful play, but usually with enough errors (from the opposition of course?) to make for interesting games. Lawns 2 and 3 will be occupied for most of the day by this match. We wish our team the best of luck and fine weather.
Bowdon have increased their lead at the top of the NWF Midweek AC Handicap League. By beating the visiting Southport team, Bowdon now have 4 wins from 4 matches, with Pendle and Craven in second place with 2 wins from their 4 matches. Well done team.
Southport’s team consisted of relatively high bisquers (three at 16 and one at 18), compared with Bowdon. This meant that most games began with Southport players using their bisques to get ahead and Bowdon’s players having to hopefully catch up and overtake in the latter stages. Those latter stages were sometimes very late indeed (particularly in Andrew’s morning singles) and required strong nerves as well as skill.
